[joshuanomed]

Politically I vote Democratic at the Federal level and a mix between Democrats and Republicans at State/local level. That's shifted in recent years as the GOP has purged moderates out of the NY State party.

I think we should either pay enough taxes to cover our routine government expenses, or cut the expenses to meet the revenues from taxes.

Generally the GOP talks about cutting taxes and spending, but shifts the burden to debt and various user fees. Democrats get blamed for raising taxes, but generally raise taxes to meet existing obligations (as well as use taxes as punitive means to change social or business policy).

For 2014 my household had an AGI of approximately $900k, of which we paid around $250k in US Federal taxes, roughly $70k in NY State taxes, and another $32k in NYC taxes. So, roughly 42% tax rate when you combine all three (I'm ignoring sales taxes).

I don't think I pay too much in tax.

Would I like it to be less? Sure. But I like having roads that are paved, bridges that don't fall down, police and firemen who are paid a decent wage. None of these services are free. Many of these services (at least in NYC) started out as commercial services in the 1800s and shifted to being government produced and funded.

You know why? Because humans suck at forecasting their own needs. I don't have kids, but I pay for schools in my taxes. I don't plan to have a fire, or be the victim of a crime, yet I continue to subsidize the people who are victims of crimes, even (indirectly) the people who commit those crimes.

Americans seem to be uniquely blind to the benefits of the social system we’ve created over the past 230+ years. All we see are the system, its bugs and inefficiencies, the corruption, the costs. We fail to recognize the benefits.

The US economy is an extremely imperfect capitalist system, but until someone explains to me clearly, without waving hands, or relying on the Laffer curve, how to fund socially shared obligations without paying taxes, then I'll pay them and use other forms of influence to try to change how my taxes are used.

Because the alternative is to resort to building a castle and a moat, and hiring a bunch of flunkies to guard me and my moat and my money, and effectively create my own little government.

[heynk]

Thank you. It's refreshing to see someone walking the walk, not just talking the talk. Too many people get above 6 figures and decide that taxes are suddenly the worst thing in their life.

[montbonnot]

If you make $900k/y and you're fine losing $378000 then we need a flexible system. Where people like you you'd be working %42 of their time for free, while people like me would chose to earn each and every minute back. Time is more valuable than money. I'd be fine losing %42 of my annual salary working %42 less.

[joshuanomed]

Time is absolutely more valuable than money, which is why I focus on making as much as possible for a few hours a month.

If you want to accumulate wealth, focus less on how much money you pay in taxes, and more on how to make the money you earn work more for you. If you earn $1MM in app sales in one year, fantastic, great for you. Pay your taxes, and invest the remainder to build up a business that earns you $500k a year with minimal effort on your part.

Of that $900k AGI, only about $450k was wages, the rest is earnings from investments (which get taxed differently depending on how they're paid).

[joshuanomed]

So, you don't need any public services at all?

I'm not losing money, I'm contracting out a variety of services I'd otherwise have to pay for.

[montbonnot]

I do. But a police officer gets taxed. A fireman gets taxed too (a lot in my opinion). What are they subscribed to? Themselves? How about using big corporate money to pay for that? Look at Apple they run most of their offices outside of the US to avoid being ripped-off by the US government. If they get a fair tax bracket then they'd bring their business back in the US. Then we could use that money instead of our own money.

[joshuanomed]

Apple keeps a lot of its cash “overseas” because of 30+ years of tax policy changes to shift the tax burden from businesses to individuals.

As long as business can leverage “overseas” cash assets to issue debt in the US without paying taxes on the cash, they'll do so, only until the interest rate on the debt exceeds how much they'd have to pay in taxes to repatriate the cash.